Two days after hearing a presentation on the possible use of mobile speed vans or red-light cameras to curb speeding and collisions in Covington, City Council members - many citing public outcry - adamantly spoke out against the proposal and said they would never endorse it.

With a majority of council members against it, the proposal appears to be dead in the water.

At Mayor Candace Watkins' behest, Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, which ran Jefferson Parish's red-light cameras from late 2007 until January, gave a presentation to the council Tuesday night on its services. Watkins stated from the outset that she was for the mobile speed vans, not red-light cameras.

She has said speeding is "the single greatest complaint I have heard as mayor." And Covington Police Chief Richard Palmisano has said he can see Redflex traffic systems helping the city and his department, by curbing speeding and freeing up officers for other duties.

Jefferson Parish froze its red-light cameras program amid revelations that lobbyists who had helped Reflex get the parish's business were sharing revenue from the resulting traffic tickets.

Following the presentation to the Covington City Council on Tuesday night, council members expressed some concerns and asked questions to Charlie Buckels of Redflex, who attempted to relieve their doubts. No council member at the meeting explicitly stated that they were against the notion of speed vans.

The vans use roof-mounted radar and video equipment that zooms in on a vehicle's license plate number if a vehicle is traveling more than a certain amount over the speed limit.

By Thursday, several council members said they'd received calls from enraged constituents lambasting the idea.

"You'd think we were putting up a nuclear plant or something," quipped Councilman Trey Blackall. "I have never had to respond to an issue like I have had to do with this one. I am not voting for this proposal."

"I think over the last two days we have just seen how people feel," he continued. "Just the mere mention of having a meeting to talk about something like this sparks this type of comment. It's just one of these issues that touches people nerves... and it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort."

Several other council members took umbrage at the suggestion that the council had even considered the proposal, and pointed fingers back at the mayor who had brought it to them.

"There was never any mention of the council considering this issue and the only way it ever would be considered is if someone brought it up as an agenda item," Councilman Lee Alexius said in a heated email. "I don't see any council members doing that and if the mayor or police chief wanted to do so it would be acted on then. I repeat, it is not being considered by the council for implementation!"

Councilman Mark Sacco said he thought it was improper for the mayor to even bring up the proposal, in part because Buckels stated that any contract with Redflex would have to be a five-year contract.

"I don't think that this mayor or any mayor for that matter, in their last term outgoing, should look at doing a contract that extends beyond their term," Sacco said, referring to the fact the Watkins will not run for re-election next year. "The meeting is something we did at the request of the mayor. We didn't ask for it. We did it because she asked us to look into it."

"There are a lot of issues with this mobile speeding or red-light camera system, and it is just not something that I see beneficial right now," Sacco continued. "I am emphatically against it."
Sacco, along with other council members, said that speeding is a problem that would be better handled by the police department than cameras.

"Yeah, I think it should be handled by our police," Councilman Clarence Romage said. "I think it just needs to happen in house, with more aggressive tactics."

Romage, who said he is "150 percent against" the idea of speed or red-light cameras, said he'd investigated the matter before the meeting and came in already against it. In fact, he said he strolled in about 20 minutes late precisely because of that negative disposition.

Councilman Marty Benoit said he also arrived at the meeting with his mind already made up.

"I appreciate the presentation made at the work session by Mr. Buckels of RedFlex, but nothing was shown to change my view at this point," Benoit wrote in an email. "However, I am always willing to assess any new data or findings that may be presented for future consideration."

Council President Matt Faust said Thursday afternoon, "I am not in favor of turning Covington in ticket town USA. "I don't think we have a big enough problem that warrants automated ticket writing machines."

Faust said that if Palmisano "feels there is a particular area of town that has safety issues due to speeding then I wish he would come to us and give us those statistics so then we could make an informed decision on which is the best way to address the problem."

Councilwoman Francis Dunn did not attend the work session and in an email to the newspaper Thursday she did not state her position on the matter.